UN vehicles stoned in Kinshasa after party HQ fire

KINSHASA, Sep 18 (Reuters) Angry supporters of Congolese presidential contender Jean-Pierre Bemba today stoned UN vehicles in Kinshasa after a fire damaged a building housing his party offices and two allied TV stations, witnesses said.

Followers of Bemba quickly blamed supporters of President Joseph Kabila, Bemba's rival in the contest for the Democratic Republic of Congo presidency, for starting the fire.

There was no immediate reaction from the president's camp but the incident raised tensions in the Congolese riverside capital one month after fighting there between Kabila's guards and soldiers loyal to Bemba killed at least 30 people.

One person was reported injured in the blaze, which was doused by a fire truck that had to be protected by white UN armoured vehicles, part of the more than 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in Congo.

Kabila and his vice-president, former rebel leader Bemba, are due to contest a second-round presidential run-off set for October 29 after finishing as the two frontrunners in Congo's historic July 30 elections.

Today's fire gutted the top floors of the building which served as offices of Bemba's Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC), a former Ugandan-backed rebel group that fought in Congo's 1998-2003 war.

The building also housed two pro-Bemba private TV stations, Canal Kin and Canal Congo.

Witnesses said that when UN vehicles arrived, they were stoned by Bemba supporters. One UN jeep reversed and withdrew to avoid the enraged mob.

Foreign reporters were also jostled, and one was slapped.

''Obviously, it's criminal ... How can one talk of democracy? Kabila's people are proving once again that they are not democrats. It's them who did this,'' one of Bemba's aides, Fidele Babala, said.

No independent assessment of how the fire had started was immediately available.

The July 30 elections were the first free polls in more than four decades in the mineral-rich former Belgian colony and were meant to draw a line under the 1998-2003 war which killed more than 4 million people, mainly through hunger and disease.

Analysts fear that the fierce political rivalry between Kabila, whose supporters dominate the Swahili-speaking east, and Bemba, who enjoys strong backing in Kinshasa and the Lingala-speaking west, could drag Congo back into conflict.

The announcement on August 20 of the first round's election results triggered three days of clashes in Kinshasa between heavily armed members of Kabila's presidential guard and soldiers loyal to Bemba.

UN and foreign mediators persuaded both sides to call a truce and agree to work towards establishing secure and peaceful conditions for the holding of the decisive October run-off vote.

Kabila won the first round of the presidential contest with 45 percent, ahead of Bemba, who had 20 per cent.

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